The Problem with Mead
by Devin Artan
Summary: Merlin, Arthur and the knights are celebrating a newly formed peace treaty. One tankard of mead leads to another, and Merlin is dared by Arthur. Everyone is shocked when Merlin's scars are revealed.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So here's a scar reveal fic! It will be, at the very least, a two-shot. Hope you enjoy! :)

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The Problems with Mead- Chapter 1

It started, as these things do, with a dare. Add in some slightly inebriated knights and a complete prat of a king, and you have a recipe for disaster. Lastly and most importantly, the poor victim of the story: a clever, brave and incredibly handsome servant. Merlin sighed and dug the heel of his palm into his eye, one arm a secure band around his waist. How did it come to this? Oh right, inebriation. Well, his secret was out. At least, one of them was. No longer could he pretend to be naïve in the face of conflict, or to the reality of the consequences of war. No longer could he pretend to have escaped unscathed from the clutches of Death.

It began innocently, with the private celebration of the peace treaty that had just been forged with the kingdom of Mercia. Arthur and his most trusted knights had retreated to his chambers, and the best mead from the tavern had been sent for. Merlin of course was there as well, as he always was. Various drinking games commenced, all spearheaded by Gwaine, but everyone as eager as he, although some were loathe to show it. Merlin envied them the ability to completely let loose, and he hoped that one day he would be able to, and that they would see him for who he truly was. For now though, all he could do was pretend. So Merlin sipped slowly, and when no one was looking, he deftly poured his drink back into the strategically placed flagon. Gradually the games became stories, the stories became boasts, and eventually, those boasts became dares. Percival had just been dared by Elyan to go out into the courtyard and serenade someone. Gleefully, the others gathered around Arthur's window and waited for Percival to make his move. They watched in utter astonishment as Percival approached what looked to be an elderly and rather shapeless woman in the darkness below. Percival dropped to his knees before the figure, and boomed at such a volume that he was previously unknown to possess a surprisingly well-put together string of original song lyrics. All Merlin could catch from his position under Arthur's arm was something about the moonlight shining magnificently and revealing true beauty, along with a rather long description of Percival's own muscular prowess and his love of kittens. Struggling free of Arthur's hold, Merlin saw the poor accosted citizen of Camelot whap him around the head and tell him that if Sir Percival didn't kindly desist that instant, he would abuse his knowledge of potions and plants to give him something that would extend his sure hangover to the middle of next week. And give him nasty boils. Merlin swore that he could see The Raised Eyebrow of Disdain and Disappointment all the way from the window.

"Oh god, is that Gaius?" Gwaine exclaimed. "I will never let dear Percy forget this one!"

As one, they scrambled away from the window and dove towards the floor as if the Eyebrow could see them. There they remained until Percival slunk back into the room, red to his ears, and said with ill-disguised relief, "He's gone".

Soon the episode was pushed to the back of their minds as they moved on to more inventive dares that they kept confined to Arthur's room, unwilling to have a repeat of Percival's performance. Merlin had managed to deflect most of the dares directed at him by disappearing to get more mead or making trips to the kitchen to get them all food. Finally though, his luck ran out. Arthur turned towards him with a predatory gleam in his eyes.

"Merlin! I am going to dare you, and you are not going to escape it this time!" he crowed. Merlin slumped, but he had just left to get more food and the flagon was full, so he really had no more excuses. Not for lack of trying.

"Sire, I really need to go back to my room, I forgot I needed to help Gaius-"

"_Mer_lin! You know as well as I that Gaius is snoring right now and won't need you until the morning. Now. Listen to my dare, and that is an order!" Arthur paused for a second, as though to make sure Merlin really was listening. "I dare you to… run naked through the courtyard." The knights all burst out laughing.

"C'mon mate," Gwaine said, "you can do it!"

Merlin paled, but put on a little grin.

"Oh no, thank you Arthur, but I really couldn't. I wouldn't want to put all you men to shame."

"Oi! What's that supposed to mean?" Gwaine exclaimed.

Leon spoke up. "Come now, Merlin, we're all men. Don't tell me you're embarrassed!"

"Yes, that's exactly it! And I fear I will never be the same if you laugh at me, as you are sure to." Merlin quipped back.

"We promise not to laugh, right men?" said Arthur, exasperated. "Just do the damn dare!"

Merlin tried one last tactic. "Look, I don't like to talk about it, but I've got really delicate skin. I need clothes on at all times or else I get…chapped! My skin starts to peel and it's all very unattractive. Oh and I get horrid rashes from the grass and the wind and don't get me started on the damp, cold cobblestones!"

Elyan eyed him. "You're making that up!"

Percival nodded. "Just do the dare! You saw what I did to Gaius! He's going to slip something in my drink, I know it. You weren't standing inches from him when he raised his eyebrow." They all shuddered.

The room fell silent and everyone looked at Merlin, who gulped. He didn't like the way they were all eyeing him. Suddenly Gwaine yelled "Attack!" and they all pounced, scrabbling at his clothes. Merlin tried desperately to hold his ground and thought he did pretty well withstanding Gwaine, but as soon as Percival reached him, he knew he was done for. Curled up in a ball on the cold stone floor, Merlin tried to hold on to all his clothes. Unfortunately, he made the mistake of weakening his grip when he started to hear the fabric tear- he only had so many clothes, after all- and before he could blink, his shirt had been whisked off his lithe frame.

Merlin could suddenly breathe again as every presence that was piled on him disappeared. Arthur and Gwaine each held a part of his shirt. Merlin slowly stood, arms wrapping and covering as much of his torso as possible, dreading the moment when someone would break the silence. The knights and Arthur stood in a rough semi circle in front of Merlin, eyes roving the parts of his body they could see. Gwaine was the first to pull himself together.

"Merlin… what happened?"

"What? Don't you all have scars?" Merlin laughed nervously. He kept one arm crossed up over his chest, obstructing most of the remnants of his battle with Nimueh.

"Not like those, we don't." Leon said quietly.

"When did you get all of them?" asked Elyan softly.

"Oh, you know, I've just picked them up around. Like I said, I've got delicate skin. It doesn't take much. But don't call me a girl! It's just the way I was born. And you know me, I'm dreadfully clumsy! Anyways, I really should get going, it's getting late, I've got armor to polish, shoes to shine, laundry to wash, stables to muck out… You know how it is. Busy, busy, busy. So I'll just take my shirt back and I'll be on my way and-"

Arthur broke his transfixed gaze and said sharply "Merlin! Will you stop blathering on! You will not, under any circumstances, leave this room until you tell us what happened." Perhaps realizing he was speaking harshly and feeling slightly looser with his emotions, he added "Please, Merlin. We'd like to know what happened to you."

Merlin sighed. He supposed there was no way of getting out of it now. Slowly, he dropped his arms to his sides and stood up to his full height, hiding nothing of the many scars that littered his body. "Alright," he said, "But can we just… all sit down? If I have to go over every little blemish- again, I have delicate skin- we might be here a while and my feet hurt."

As one, they sat on the floor in a rough circle and gave Merlin their complete attention. Merlin sighed again. He just knew this wasn't going to be fun. Plus, he would have to severely edit his stories to make sure no hint of his magic was revealed. He'd need all his wits about him.

Good thing he didn't actually drink much mead.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Whew. So this took me a while to write. I had a hard time with it. Damn those middle chapters that you have to write to get to the end!

Aaaaaanyways, there's going to be one more chapter that will (hopefully) be more exciting and full of angst-y goodness! Hope you like this chapter though :)

And thank you for all of the reviews!

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Chapter 2

The tension in the room was palpable. They all stared at Merlin, waiting with undisguised impatience. A small burp broke the silence. Merlin startled a bit, waking from the brief calm before the onslaught of questions to come. He smiled nervously, trying to think of excuses he could use. Even in their varying stages of drunkenness, somehow he doubted they would believe that every scar was trip-related. Maybe he could pass of the smaller ones as unfortunate falls, but the blast from Nimueh? The Serket sting or the entry wound from Morgana's snake? They would be harder to explain away. Perhaps…perhaps sticking closest to the truth would be best. Anything less probably wouldn't fool them. However, he didn't think that they had seen his back yet, so perhaps the only difficulty would be in explaining away the perfectly circular mass of scar tissue, courtesy of Nimueh.

They were still staring at him with an uncanny amount of focus and clarity in their eyes. Merlin sighed, and began to speak.

"I don't really know where to begin-" he broke off suddenly, eyes drawn to a quick surge of movement from Gwaine, who had just relieved himself of his shirt.

"Just want to make you more comfortable, mate."

Merlin decided not to deign that with a response. "As I was saying, I'm not really sure where to start. It's important for you all to know that a lot of these scars are from training with Arthur and day to day falls and accidents."

"You do walk like you've never learned to use your legs," Arthur stated.

"At least I know how to dress myself."

"I can so dress myself! You just…you just weren't watching when I did it!"

Elyan raised his hand threateningly. "Alright! Merlin, stop trying to distract us."

"Yeah, _Mer_lin!" crowed Arthur.

"It wasn't even me!" he answered, indignant. Leon looked at him and frowned. "Oh, all right, I'll get on with it.

"Let's see… this one was a fall down some stairs, this one was a fall in the woods, this was from that time I was hit by an arrow, you remember that Arthur, oh and that one was a sword wound, so was that one…and that one…and that one…almost forgot this one…not sure where that one is from…bandits maybe?...or that could've been that incident with the sock and the fork-"

"Wait, I want to hear more about that one!" interrupted Gwaine.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"But-"

"No."

"I'm begging you, Merlin!" Gwaine then attempted to sway Merlin with a fairly accurate imitation of a puppy.

"Okay, okay fine! As long as I never have to see that again! Let's just say it's similar to that time last year, with that wooden knife and the bowl of tomatoes."

Gwaine gasped. "Oh! Good god, Merlin. You too, eh?" He started to laugh, slumping over on to Percival, who pushed him back into Arthur.

Arthur did not look happy. "Just _what_ is so funny?"

Gwaine immediately sat up and stopped laughing. He looked at Merlin. Merlin looked back.

"Nothing!" They said in unison.

Arthur frowned further and opened his mouth, most likely to threaten them. Merlin quickly leapt in. "Arthur, it's really nothing. Can I go to bed now?"

Successfully diverted, Arthur glanced at him sharply. "Stop trying to escape this. We want to know everything. But I think you can skip the ones that were just you being clumsy. I think the one we all want to know about is…is the burn."

Merlin laughed nervously. "Are you sure you don't want to hear about the one I got from an unfortunately very frozen potato? Or the awful day I had with Gaius's leaches? Or the time a rat was in one of the glass jars? Oh wait, I know a good one. So one day I was-"

"Merlin," Percival said quietly. "You can trust us with this."

"We're your friends," Elyan agreed.

Gwaine smiled. "C'mon Merlin, you're my best mate."

Leon nodded and smiled at Merlin, then looked to Arthur, who cleared his throat and said, "Please, Merlin."

Merlin wilted. "Oh, all right. The burn. Right. Here we go… you see, I was gathering herbs for Gaius one night and I may have gotten slightly turned around. So I walked about for a bit-"

"Stumbled, more like. I've never seen you walk a straight line in the woods."

"Alright, thank you for that Arthur, but at least I don't lumber around, stomping my feet."

"I do not stomp!"

"Maybe you're just heavy footed, then."

"What exactly are you implying, Merlin?"

"Nothing, nothing at all Sire, just stating a fact."

Arthur opened his mouth angrily, but before he could respond, no doubt with a clever and stinging remark, Percival intervened.

"Sire," he said quietly. "I think Merlin might be trying to distract us."

"Yes, thank you Percival, I realize that. Now Merlin, stop it. Stop it right now. We will not leave this room until we are done here, not even when the sun comes up. You will be restrained if you try to escape. Anyways, where would you go? We would find you." He smiled.

Merlin slumped further. Resigned, he continued his tale.

"As I was saying, I got lost, but in my defense, I was tired! And it was really quite dark. Anyways, there I was, stumbling around, when I heard something." Merlin paused. This was it. Should he fabricate another lie? Add to his long list of half-truths? Would they even believe whatever insane story he came up with? Was it even safe to talk to Arthur about anything to do with magic? He wanted to tell them, wanted to tell them something, anything that was true, but how could he risk it? He knew it would feel so incredibly good. He could be himself, just for a moment. But the price of feeling good, of being honest, well, more honest than usual anyways… would it be worth it?

Merlin gathered himself before speaking again. "The sound was a voice, so I followed it. I walked through the trees, and eventually I came upon a clearing. Something felt…off. So I crept up and hid behind a tree. The voice was clearer then. It was a woman's, and it was chanting."

Arthur stiffened. "Sorceress…" he whispered.

"That's what I thought. I looked about, and a little ways away from me I saw a woman standing over… over the body of a… a bear." He winced. Hopefully it sounded sorcery enough. "The bear was lying half in a pool of water and the woman had built some sort of tower… thingy…of stones." Merlin took a quick glance at the others. They all seemed enraptured. "I don't know what she was doing, but I did not want to stay and find out. I started backwards, but… I tripped. The chanting stopped. I looked out, but she was gone. I thought maybe she had been scared off, but when I got up and turned around, she was standing a few feet in front of me. Of course I tried to start running, what was I supposed to do, throw flowers at her? But she didn't give me the chance to run. She thrust her hand toward me, said some spell, and the next thing I knew, there was a ball of fire speeding towards me. I didn't have time to dodge. Anyways, I think she thought she had killed me, but I guess it wasn't as strong a spell as she believed it to be. I pretended to be dead, and waited for her to leave. Then I made my way back to Camelot. That's it. The end."

Leon spoke first. "Merlin, you almost died! Why are you making so light of it?"

Merlin was slightly frustrated. He had hoped that they would just stop asking him questions. Surely they knew how it was, they were knights!

"Because, Leon, these things happen. I go to battle with you all quite often, whether it's bandits or war. My place is with Arthur. I've lost track of the fights we've been in. Someday I may be fatally injured, yes that's true, but that's something you live with. If you thought about all the bad things that happened to you all the time, how would you get anything done?" Merlin sighed. "I'm not making light of it, not exactly, it's just something I've accepted as part of my life."

Arthur spoke then. "This doesn't have to be your life. I don't understand why… why you put yourself through this when you could be anywhere else!"

"Arthur, I love my job. Well, not all of it. I hate those stupid, endless lists of chores you assign me when you're annoyed, and when you throw heavy things at me, and when you don't believe me when I'm right, and sometimes you're a right pain-"

"Alright, I get it!"

"But, Arthur, I will be your manservant for the rest of my life. It is my destiny, and it is where I want to be."

Arthur sighed and said softly, "I don't know what I did to deserve you, Merlin." He shook himself, seeming to remember that they had an audience. "Right. Well, you're still an idiot, Merlin! Why didn't you tell me about this sorceress? You must have seen her face, if she was that close to you. Do you know who she was? I promise you, I will find her and she will pay for what she has done."

Merlin realized right then and there that Arthur would do as he promised. He would search every home for a hint of sorcery, and probably parade the women in front of Merlin until he recognized her. He couldn't let that happen. What if Arthur really did find a sorcerer? What if he condemned innocent people, sorcerers and non-sorcerers alike, to death? There was only one way out of this. The truth.

"You won't find her in any home in Camelot. In fact, you probably won't find her at all, unless she wants to be found. I saw her face; I know who she is.

Arthur, it was Nimueh."


End file.
